Is America Giving Up on the Future?

There’s a glum desperation in the air that’s hard to escape: volatility, futility, and a McFuture ghoulishly wagging its skeletal finger at a lost generation.

So on what scale would you say transformation should happen? What’s the breadth of your vision for change?

It’s time to get not just serious, but maybe even a little bit radical. This isn’t a drill, but a nine-alarm fire. But where are the fire engines? Washington’s bogged down in games of brinksmanship instead of practicing the art of leadership. Hell-bent on running each other into the ground — instead of running the nation — America’s so-called leaders are sending us into what wonks are calling a “policy-induced recession.” Listen to what Robert Gates has to say about it:

I do believe that we are now in uncharted waters when it comes to the dysfunction in our political system — and it is no longer a joking matter…we have lost the ability to execute even the basic functions of government, much less solve the most difficult and divisive problems facing the country. Thus, I am more concerned than I have ever been about the state of American governance.

It’s bonkers, right? We’re confronted by the most ferocious, tenacious crisis in decades — and that’s when the Big Kahunas decide to squabble over whose got the biggest biceps? Unfortunately, it’s rationally irrational, tediously predictable — a textbook example of a competence trap. A crisis is exactly when you should expect body-checked jockeying for pole-position to occur, because that’s when political power counts most.

Let’s start with the easy one: the financial sector trades imaginary “value,” which, when it gets “erased” by the trillion, sends journalists into paroxysms of fear and gloom. But, as Roger Martin has pointed out, it wasn’t genuine to begin with; a scoreboard whose points are more and more divorced from the reality of human prosperity.

Modern “work” seems to consist of billions of brow-mopping person-hours teeth-gnashingly dreaming up suspiciously dubious benefits (See these jeans? They’re going to fix your miserable love life!! See this PowerPoint deck? It’s how you’re going to take over the world!! See this spreadsheet? It’s how we’re going to “manage our risk”!!). I’d suggest: America’s Stoic appetite for work focused on gains that most of know are about as imaginary as My Little Pony probably isn’t a recipe for real prosperity.

In the beige, Muzak-filled aisles, we seem oblivious to the consequences of our decisions. The largest private employer in America? Walmart. The second largest private employer? McDonald’s. That’s not an accident. While everyone has a budget, and while that budget’s been shrinking as real median incomes have stagnated and arguably declined, it’s decades of having relentlessly sought out the Everyday Low Price — while turning a blind eye to human, natural, and social costs — that might have played a tiny bit of a role in getting us to the point where McMonopolists monopolize once thriving town centers, and a McFuture looms over the people formerly known as the middle class.

America’s churning out ersatz prosperity like a Dalian bootlegger churns out counterfeit bags because that’s exactly what it’s optimized for. It’s a bad dynamic equilibrium fueled by bad choices. Now, this isn’t a plea for America to “wake up” and smell the roses. Nor am I suggesting simply we “make different choices.” Instead, I’m suggesting that yesterday’s suffocating structure of dilemma-ridden choices (whether between Presidential candidates, big-box stores, or fast-food joints) is what’s limiting us to the plight of the present.

You can’t make a quantum leap to real human prosperity when the only people interested in it are a handful of protestors. Conversely, you probably can’t steal an entire generation or three’s future and hope to get away with it forever. Instead, the truth might be both mundane — and malign. When the payoffs change, so should your preferences. While America’s payoffs have changed radically over the last decades, it’s preferences haven’t. As “consumers,” “producers,” and citizens, Americans haven’t quite woken up to the realities of the 21st century yet.

If I had to pin those realities down, I’d say the following deserve a place on the list: That the wealth of a nation isn’t merely the sum of its tradable riches; that a thriving marketplace isn’t a big box store; that industrial output matters less than human outcomes; that work that matters yields accomplishments that endure; that Goldman Sachs probably shouldn’t be as profitable as Apple, because builders should earn more than shufflers; that the worth of an enduring achievement is denominated in more than mere profit; that how we feel about our lives is worth more than how enviably glamorous they look; that tomorrow matters more — not less — than today.

If America wants to create the future, I’d say it’s going to have to not only face these realities, but value them. In short, it’s going to have to prefer to buy stuff that offers real benefits, to work on stuff of real worth, to invest rather than just speculate, to educate and dedicate its time, energy, and resources not merely to more-bigger-faster-cheaper-nastier-now but to smarter, fitter, wiser, fairer, humbler, closer. Not giving up on the future requires the furious pursuit of living more meaningfully well in the present.

Call me crazy, but I’d bet: you probably can’t Farmville your way into the future. Prosperity isn’t a video game. Reality matters. Let’s be clear: change at the institutional level is hard. It doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time, effort, perseverance, courage, and wisdom.

It’s not enough, anymore, for America to pretend that yesterday’s best was good enough, just enough, or wise enough. Because if you give up on the future for long enough — well, the future gives up on you.